george washington university, he said mitt romney's poised performance -- >> i will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income americans. >> reporter: romney looked like he wanted to be there. he was engaged. >> coupled with president obama's lackluster performance seems to have changed the tone of the presidential race. >> my faith and confidence in the american future sun diminished. >> i cannot explain what happened to barack obama. he was awol. he was distracted, did he -- defensive, detached. >> reporter: frank said he should have become much more engaged. >> he dropped the ball. there's no way around it. >> reporter: having said all that, he also said that plenty of presidential candidates have rallied after a bad first debate. >> reagan came back in his second debate. >> reporter: and with that in mind he's very much looking forward to the next debate on october 16th. >> romney thinks he's on a roll now. he's going to keep that posture, i would pre excuse me. barack obama has got to have a completely different air about him. he's got to be a combatant, not a visitor. >> reporter: pr